


Bickers

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [20]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Foreshadowing, i mean it seems nice until you remember where it's going, i tried comedy and failed, this is so so bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 04:21:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20157319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: Jim Hopper has got to be the most infuriating person Joyce Byers has ever met.And that’s saying something, considering she’s had both her ex husband and a group of federal agents to deal with in the last five years.





	Bickers

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I'm catching up, so this is rushed and bad but the prompt for this one is Funniest Couple, and that by far for season was Jim and Joyce. You can tell how close Winona and David and it makes their chemistry that much better, and I need Hop alive in season 4.  
As always, comments and kudos are better writing fuel than coffee, and you can always come to my tumblr @modernfeminismtalking. Enjoy!

Jim Hopper has got to be the most infuriating person Joyce Byers has ever met. 

And that’s saying something, considering she’s had both her ex husband and a group of federal agents to deal with in the last five years.

She means, sure, were they maybe a thing in high school? Of course! They were young and it was the time of free love and all that, so of course they ended up making out underneath the bleachers during football games. 

And basketball games.

And prom. 

But that never meant anything and it never went anywhere. She met Lonnie right after Jim left, and Jim got married to some blonde broad. 

Now things are different, and they’ve handled multiple government conspiracies together, and he’s clearly shown interest in her, but she just doesn’t know. 

It’s too soon after Bob is her main reasoning, but she can’t deny the spark of affection that runs through her when he comes into the Big Buy, bitching about Wheeler. 

“Who does he think he is, Joyce? I’m the Chief of Police, I could hide the body,” he says, huffing like a child. 

She’ll respond by swatting him with her inventory sheet, and misses how his eyes soften to look at her. 

They’re friends right now, and Joyce needs all the support she can get. 

That’s what she tells herself for turning him down the first time. 

She doesn’t know why she agrees the second time, and is actually looking forward to going until she sees the damn magnets.

Joyce isn’t crazy, she just can’t read these physics books, so she goes to Scott for help.

He confirms her suspicions, and she heads to Hop’s to demand a trip to Hawkins Lab.

She mentions Scott when he protests, and Joyce thinks he’s jealous by the way he snaps back. 

Joyce thinks that Scott plays for a different team, but she’s not about to give Hopper the satisfaction. 

She lets him brood, and be jealous, and somehow, they end up taking a Russian fugitive to a paranoid private investigator’s house in Illinois. 

Joyce would like a break, please.

As always, Hawkins is ground zero for the possible apocalypse, and they end up racing back home to make sure the kids are safe. 

Their bickering has gotten worse in the past couple days, but Jim is being insufferable and she can’t take it anymore. 

Clearly, neither can Murray.

“So, please for my sake, either quit your bickering, or pull over, tear off those clothes, and get it over with already!”

What the fuck.

No.

No.

Joyce just isn’t going to look at him. She wants to look at him, wants to see if it’s true, but she’s not going to do it. 

The car is tense and quiet, other than the two laughing in the back, and before she knows it they’re back in Hawkins. 

It becomes a blur after they enter the fair. The Russians find them, Alexei dies, they’re going after the kids, there’s another fucking monster loose in Hawkins, and they’re going down to close the gate. Again.

Joyce feels her head spin as she holds her younger son close to her. 

“I’m not worried about me, Mom, I’m worried about you,” Will says, and her chest aches.

She, Hopper, and Murray get down into the lab somewhat successfully. While Murray goes to cut the wires, she and Hop get a moment to themselves.

Joyce knows that this might be it for either of them, so she takes a chance. 

“What do you say? Enzo’s, 8 o’clock Friday?”

Hop looks at her in a daze, and tells her that El likes to watch Miami Vice on Fridays so he can’t stay out late.

They settle for six o’clock, and something warm settles in her chest.

_Finally_, she thinks, taking a deep breath.


End file.
